Book Patrol is a place where you can share in Michael Lieberman's passion for the printed word, the history of the book as an object and as a cultural artifact.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..

The McSweeney’s Archive is open for business

Dave Eggers launched Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern from his Brooklyn apartment in 1998. When the the McSweeney’s archive was acquired by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas a mere 15 years later the McSweeney’s community had become one of the seminal hubs of literary culture in the 21st century.

In addition to the highest quality writing each publication conveys a deep appreciation for design and craft making their publications instantly recognizable and consistently appealing.

The archive documents the “evolution of a startup quarterly literary journal into a highly influential small publishing house and creator of several serials, including Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern and the Believer, and a growing catalog of titles under its many book imprints.”

Believer magazine subscription card filled out by David Foster Wallace.

Hand-illustrated cover of Lawrence Krauser’s novel Lemon. “Over a period of about three months, for about three hours a day, Krauser drew unique doodles on 9,812 Lemon dust jackets, making each copy a unique, one-of-a-kind original. Krauser didn’t quite make it through the 10,000 print run, but illustrated an additional 1,000 covers for the Dutch translation, for a grand total of 10,812 unique books.”

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..